the UW Sustainability blog
This Earth Day, learn how the UW is working toward decarbonization and what progress we've made.
Join a virtual discussion on the UW's efforts to decarbonize the energy system of our Seattle campus on Wednesday, April 22, 2026 at 10:30-11:30 a.m. via Zoom. Registration is required.
This spring, the UW Earth Day Committee - made up of passionate and driven students - was the driving force behind a dynamic week of programming that celebrated sustainability in all forms. Through weekly planning meetings with my supervisor Emily and coworker Kellie, we co-created interactive and educational events that raised visibility for intersectional sustainability and highlighted the importance of environmental action.
The University of Washington is hosting events to recognize Earth Day throughout the month of April - and beyond.
See the full UW Earth Month calendar to see all of the events happening at all three UW campuses, hosted by many different departments and student groups. Volunteer opportunities, inspiring speakers, discussions, tours, hands-on activities and much more are happening nearly every day this month.
Starting April 21, some of the highlights of the student-driven Earth Week programming include:
As part of this year's Earth Day events, UW Sustainability had a great time with our first ever "Pie in the face" event. What is this, you might ask? Well, we asked staff and faculty members to answer trivia questions asked by students. The penalty for a wrong answer was a pie in their face!
UW Bothell is hosting the event "Climate Dialog - Sustainable Food Systems" on Wednesday, April 21, at 1 - 3 p.m.
This Earth Day, watch UW faculty and staff answer sustainability questions, with a twist: Wrong answers get a pie in the face!
Faculty Kristi Straus of Environmental Studies and Rebecca Neumann of Civil & Environmental Engineering are joined by UW Sustainability Director Claudia Frere-Anderson to take on the challenge. The event will be on Earth Day, Thursday, April 22, at 12 p.m.
All UW faculty, staff and students are invited to a virtual Earth Day screening of the movie "Fantastic Fungi," followed by a dicussion with fungi experts.
UW Tacoma is hosting the screening on April 22 at 6 p.m. The visually-stunning film teaches you all about fungi, from their effects in the human body to how fungi help the Earth. The screening will be followed by a Q&A session with fungi experts Erica Cline, UW Tacoma associate professor, and Renee Davis, MA, Fungi Perfecti director of Research and Development.
UW's Records Management Services is working to Fetch the Future and help prepare the UW to eliminate paper records by February of 2022. This April, Records Management is hosting a series of events to celebrate both Earth Day and Records Management Month, and to give staff across the UW opportunities to learn more and discuss challenges around move to all-digital records.
This is a guest post from 10-year-old Sharda Shah, the daughter of Mauli Shah who works in UW Medicine’s IT Department. As they have been looking for projects at home, this Earth Month they found a solar cooker sitting unused in their shed and decided to try it out. Here are Sharda’s thoughts on using a solar cooker, and how it shows solar energy can be useful even at small scales.
Gabrielle Coeuille and Pooja Kumar are bringing a new perspective to sustainability with their presentation as part of the Washington Higher Education Sustainability Coalition (WAHESC) Digital Earth Day Seminars. Both are currently interning with UW Recycling: Gabi is the Waste Diversion & Reduction Intern and Pooja is the Waste Diversion Assistant.